'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎125] (258/458)

125
'’ e erea ted®ii t ,
106 a " ( l (ainisif
umulatedanimJ
river. He*
V
perhaps, diifc
be done, unlJ
and thus depriJ
»m the N, E, i
islngto find eveij
t almost isolaH
of prosperity ail
3sh disaster fi
itry traversed \
it partially
icreasing anari}
jir vocational ^
pottering s**
■rials, carriel I
MEMOIR ON TUE M TIGRIS/*
population, the Tartar Eagle* at this time was hovering around, care-
fully watching the failing strength of his struggling victim, whose per
versity and blindness permitted the fatal stoop to be made almost
without an effort at defence; the consequences were, a province,
which had held the capitals of successive kingdoms under different
dynasties and phases, and which at various periods had either swayed
or influenced the destinies of the world, became again and for the last
time dismembered in itself, and a prey to all who, guided by avarice or
ambition, had courage enough to contend for the choice morsels that
were left.f As a fief now of a distant crown, and principally tenanted
by strange and needy racesj of a miserable region, who wander over the
fine plains in search of a bare subsistence, it still affords a quarry for the
rapacious servants of a currnpt state; but its impoverishment is now
nearly complete, for, like Basreh, the oppulent and familiar haven of
Arabian story Baghdad, alike renowned in its pages* is fust crumbling
to ruin in default of repairs and attention to the dams. For two suc
cessive years it has now been isolated from the neighbouring country,
by inundations that have swept every thing before them, only wanting
indeed, the protecting dyke of the town to give way to raze its edifices
and bazaars to a level with the surrounding desert, whose tribes are ready
to take advantage of such an event, and then, as the vacated seat of mo-
narchs, almost as renowned as the ancient kings of Babylon, of Nineveh,
and of Susa, its career is also accomplished. Like those vast cities its
mounds will be left only for the traveller to gaze at—if he be permitted
to pass through the country by the Bedoin, who may, perhaps, resume
the patriarchal government of the plains as in the begining when
“ men journeyed from the East and found a resting place in the plain
of Shinar/^
The disasters I have enumerated are the recurring evils which
all tracts bordering upon great rivers are liable to, but which are
* Utluku and his horde.
f Timur Leak (Tamerlane^ subsequently united it, and for mere pastime destroyed mor®
of hh species than comprise the present population.
t Arab families who have collected and formed into tribes, such as the Beni Lam Montafik-
Sliam-mar Tosn Zodeide-E fas-khaz nl, and numerous o hers conclusive of the great Be loin
tribes of the Shammar, who winder uncontrolled over all Mesopotamia. At a rough compu-
tiition the soil would subsist a population perhaps a five hundred times greater than it has at
prespnt. In former tim-s to have constructed the canals whose remnants we see, ev ry square
ytirtl of ground would seem to have contained an inhabitant, for myriads of the human race
would he required to perfect the works which are left, notwithstanding flood n'ter flood
has diminished their numbers and ex @nt during the ages that have elapsed sitice their decay#
It is a wonder, indeed, that anything should remain, considering the destruction annually going
6,1 from these inundations, to confirm the accounts we have of the original numbers of ouf
race and the magnirude of the early abodes in which they first socially established themselve®*
5 Genesis xi.